Badly Supplied With Food, He And His
Half-Starved Men Held Bravely To Their Task, And No Soldiers In All
That Great Host Deserve Better Of Their Country.
At the end of May, then, the Colonial Division, Rundle's Division,
and Clements's Brigade held the Boers from Ficksburg on the Basuto
border to Senekal.
This prevented them from coming south. But what
was there to prevent them from coming west, and falling upon the
railway line? There was the weak point of the British position.
Lord Methuen had been brought across from Boshof, and was available
with six thousand men. Colvile was on that side also, with the
Highland Brigade. A few details were scattered up and down the
line, waiting to be gathered up by an enterprising enemy. Kroonstad
was held by a single militia battalion; each separate force had to
be nourished by convoys with weak escorts. Never was there such a
field for a mobile and competent guerilla leader. And, as luck
would have it, such a man was at hand, ready to take full advantage
of his opportunities.
CHAPTER 27.
THE LINES OF COMMUNICATION.
Christian de Wet, the elder of two brothers of that name, was at
this time in the prime of life, a little over forty years of age.
He was a burly middle-sized bearded man, poorly educated, but
endowed with much energy and common-sense. His military experience
dated back to Majuba Hill, and he had a large share of that curious
race hatred which is intelligible in the case of the Transvaal, but
inexplicable in a Freestater who has received no injury from the
British Empire.
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